Throughout the years the fashion industry has flown under the radar for the amount of racism and discrimination it has against minority models and races. Of course top models in the world like Tyra Banks and Beverly Johnson are of African American decent yet they can back up the argument of the lack of color in the fashion world today and in the past. It goes past the few great African American models and touches on the thousands of African American models who are left in the dust. The effect racism and discrimination has had on the fashion industry over the last forty years has increased dramatically and is hardly getting better. Many people would probably assume that as the years go on racism has gotten better but in the fashion world we are seeing more and more of it every day. As percentages of all white models in fashion weeks are increasing and the everyday racism experienced behind scenes is going unheard, people still believe that things are equal. The fight for equality in the fashion world specifically is something that has been going on for years and needs to be heard about. The fashion industry is more than just a superficial part of the world and goes deeper into how it affects the people that look up to it every day.

One of the main issues that need to be brought to the world’s attention is the lack of African American and minority races presented in European and American fashion weeks along with magazines and commercial industries.  As people sit there and admire the beauty of the clothes and models the idea or thought that all the models they are seeing look the same, rarely comes to mind. Most people do not even think twice about the Vogue or Elle magazine they just flipped through and completely miss that the issue they just read could have lacked to put just one African American model in the whole thing. It is not only the issue that these designers, photographers and editors are lacking to put diversity and girls of color in their shows and magazines but the mass amounts of people that go without noticing or raising a red flag. In 1991 there was a mere 3.4 percent of consumer magazines depicted African American models even though African Americans took up 12.5 percent of the entire world population (Gregory 89). In the fashion world and industry it is not just the models who are cheated of opportunities but also photographers and designers who are discriminated against. Whether it is that the top name brand designer did not want to use their sketches because of their color or that one certain clothing company managed to pick all white models for their calling, racism in the fashion industry goes way beyond just models. A lot of blame is put on designers and photographers for being the discriminating ones, but sometimes it is the African American ones that are discriminated against. The lack of color seen in the more recent fashion weeks is causing quite the outburst within the media. In the 2016 New York, Milan, Paris, and London fashion weeks, seventy seven percent of the almost ten thousand models were all white and the other twenty three percent were left to disperse among the minority races (Kisonian). As people get distracted by the lavish clothes and gorgeous models they lack to notice the amount of white models in these fashion shows and magazine covers. Many people to this day believe that racism and discrimination has gotten better in magazines and shows when in fact the opposite has happened. When strangers are asked on the street whether or not they think the diversity and racism issues have gotten better in the most recent fashion weeks, almost all say yes. It is the obliviousness of the public that is making this issue worse and growing larger.  Not only is the lack of color in these shows infuriating past and current models but it also infuriates the girls who follow and look up to fashion and see all but a mere twenty three percent of girls that look like them on stage. Certain models are starting to call out designers for the lack of diversity they bring to stage and are trying to pass laws to stop this craziness (Dellea).  Most models believe that once certain designers are specifically called out it will cause more of a change and embarrassment in the industry.  In response to the lack of diversity and color seen in the 2016 Fashion weeks all over the country, people and former models started taking action at this outrage. One of these former models was Bethann Hardison who wrote an extremely detailed letter to the head producers of each cities fashion weeks with statistics and lists of specific designers who lacked to diversify their group of models. (Wilson, Sept 2013).  In response to this letter, Vogue’s Italy magazine launched an entire Black issue where it was all African American models. Many people loved this and the issue even sold out faster than thousands of other issues they’ve sold before but it is more than just giving one African American issue or one African American show. This offer of a magazine article was an attempt to mend a wound with something that should be “special”. The idea that an all black magazine issue is something rare and should be cherished is an issue of itself. Having the magazine be sold out faster than editions where it is mostly all white girls was proving how when given the chance, these girls can do just as much. The fight against racism in the fashion industry calls for diversity of all races in all kinds of consumer industries. 

Another issue at hand with racism and discrimination within the fashion industry and world is using color and race slogans as a point of fashion or trend. “Black is Beautiful” and slogans like these are all starting to be used when African American girls or girls of color are on the covers of magazines and are setting a trend (Vats  113). Many of these designers and photographers who style these “Black” centered shoots think they are touching on the cultural aspects and reaching out to the minorities. The problem with these shoots is that they are demeaning and act as though being of color or “Black” is something than can be in or out of style yet nobody would ever put up a campaign of “White is beautiful” because that would be offensive. A specific example of this is in V Magazine in 2010 where two white models, once painted in complete black-face, posing together with the slogan “Black is the New Black”. As deserved, this article received extreme hate and backlash especially seeing whereas they had a white female model pose as an African American women saying that “Black is back in”, again bringing back to the issue of how a race could not go out of style. It is not only insulting to people of African American decent but anyone of the minority race. They put white models in black face and traditional African clothing to try to get them to portray how “beautiful” black is, yet refuse to use African American models in these shoots. These pictures and models are portraying that your color is something you can take off and put back on as well as portraying that these white models have any idea what it is like being the minority race in the world of the fashion industry or at all.  These slogans and ideas are racist in themselves and wrongfully represent the African American culture along with insulting hundreds of thousands people throughout the world. 

As time has progressed and people may think racism is becoming less of a problem, there is actually a decrease in the amount of African American and minority women in famous fashion magazines. From the statistics given above in 1991 there was a 3.4 percent of women of color in the magazines, which many people probably is an increase from years past. This is where we are proven wrong that this problem of racism is getting worse. In a 1987 edition from Elle the amount of African American girls seen on the pages with models was just under twenty nine percent. In another edition from Vogue in the 80s there were nine percent of African American girls of all the pages of models (Savage 26). That is at max a twenty six percent decrease and at minimum a six percent decrease whereas most would think these percentages would have assumed these percentages would have sky rocketed. In one instance Gail O’Neill, an African American model, said, “When I started in 1985, the industry was far more integrated. I feel sorry for the Black girls working today. So many times there is just one brown face, maybe two, in the couture shows. In my day, I would routinely see Naomi Campbell and Karen Alexander; I can’t even count how many brown girls I would see every time the collections came around. In a way, we have gone backwards” (Bobo 92). These young models are taught that being the only girl of their color in a room is normal and that they should just get use to things like these. As steps in the government and everyday life are going forward to rid of racism, the fashion industry goes unnoticed for their lack of ability to move forward in the steps against racism and discrimination. 

As said earlier, many people are hurt and dismayed at the lack of color seen in the everyday fashion industry which is leading to multiple models and women taking a stand to speak against this. Pat Clevland, Veronica Webb, Tyra Banks, Beverly Johnson, Karen Alexander, Lana Ogilvie, Gail O’Neill, Roshumba, and Wanakee are all African American women in the fashion industry who spoke out about their racial experiences in one of the most famous magazines of its time, Ebony.  Some of these models were discriminated against in their casting days whether it be that they were “too” dark and called disgusting words like n****r  or that they would only be used as ethnic roles such as maids. Other instances that occurred were when these girls would be the only girl of color in their entire show or room, being taught that they should just accept that and that they are the lucky ones. Lastly, the other cases of racism were when these models were putting an end to it and not letting these discriminating designers and clothing lines dictate their futures. These women stopped this by refusing to buy and wear clothes from racist designers or hiring their own hair stylist so that their hair and look is not botched by the mediocre stylists that do not know how to work with their hair (Bobo 92-93). After years and years of these models fighting to put the spotlight on women of color, things seem to regress. Racism is seen in multiple ways as these women have proven and not just the typical way of lacking to put African Americans in their work. Some of these designers put women of color in their shows and magazines just to escape scrutiny from the public but are behind the scenes racist and discriminating against their models. 

As the talk of how the decrease of African American and minority races in the industry is growing, it is even worse than anyone thought and there so little people can do. One of the worlds most famous models of all time, Chanel Iman, even is at a loss of words for what to do about this absurd problem going on. From 2012 to 2013 the amount of African American models in New York’s fashion week dropped two percent and is only predicted to get worse (Wilson, March 2013). When designers or photographers are told they need to hit a certain number of colored girls for their shoots, it almost worsens the problem. Then these teams of people treat this as a task that they just need to get out of the way and once they reach their number they will just stop looking at African American models in general.  Chanel Iman, being one of the top supermodels in the world, has even been told herself that she is not needed anymore because the shoot she was on already had some African American girls. It is the issue that some designers and photographers would rather use a worse yet white model than a stunning yet black model. Anyone who flips through a Vogue or Cosmopolitan magazine would never think there were too many white models in the issue, yet when the idea that there are too many African American models is brought to the table, it is a different issue. One of the main things that need to be done in order to prevent and stop this constant discrimination is the mistreatment of any race other than white. When people stop looking at other races as different, it will stop being an issue.

The numerous amounts of designers who have been called out for the lack of diversity in their shows or photographers who are scrutinized for meeting “color maxes” find themselves excuses constantly. One of the biggest excuses and defenses used in this industry against racism is that the majority of buyers in the world of these high end clothes are White Americans. They want to provide and give to their consumers an accurate representation of what these clothes will look like on the mass amounts of people buying them. Even if these statistics are true, how can African American women and men get the opportunity to buy these clothes when they are only portrayed on models that look nothing like themselves? One example of this is foundation makeup and how thousands of makeup companies use only white models in their commercials that show their product. Nobody would want to buy a product that promotes it basically only fits to “lighter” colored girls. 

Throughout the history of fashion and over the years in the past and years to come there is a constant evolution of racism and discrimination that is slowly growing in the negative direction. Without these issues being brought to attention by the public and media there will be no way of people knowing what is really going on in the world of fashion and behind the scenes. These problems cannot just be fixed by the few people who know about it speaking up and that is when these issues became larger. The effect racism has had over the fashion industry over the last forty years is starting to have a long lasting effect on the people and models in the industry today. The lack of diversity seen in the world is not only affecting the models, designers and photographers but also any person who enjoys fashion and has noticed this issue increasing over the years.  
